The crowds are back inside Eastern Market
Eastern Market on Capitol Hill had its grand reopening this weekend, two years after a fire destroyed the historic market and shops. Produce, meat, seafood, flower and craft vendors moved back to the restored brick building to thousands of waiting (and hungry) customers packed shoulder-to-shoulder.
An artistic tribute along the Red Line
Above-ground sections of the D.C. Metro, particularly on the Red Line, are notorious for graffiti. It’s everywhere. Ranging from legitimate art to trashy expressions of gang symbols, the walls along the train tracks are essentially an ever-changing landscape of colored paint. With that in mind, I wasn’t at all surprised to discover a brand-new Michael Jackson tribute emblazoned on the inbound side of the Brookland-CUA station on Sunday, just two days after MJ’s death. While graffitists tend to paint over each other’s work periodically and public works crews work feverishly to sanitize surfaces, I have a feeling that this one, much like the Sean Taylor memorial on the other side of the platform, will remain untouched for quite some time.
Redbirds pitcher Mike Thomas slaps a tag on the Thunderbolts' Curtis Wilson
In my spare evenings (which I seem to have a lot of) I’ll head up to Blair Stadium and shoot a game for the Cal Ripken, Sr. Collegiate Baseball League. I’ve been doing this for three years now, and while you’d think it would get boring after awhile, there’s just something pure and innocently charming about summer wooden bat leagues that keeps me going back, even when the home team is in last place.
Panoramic view from second overlook
When I go to Great Falls Park along the Potomac River, it’s usually for a hike along the rocky and (occasionally) streneous Billy Goat Trail or a stroll down the historic C&O Canal towpath, a 200-mile gravel road connecting Georgetown to Cumberland, Md. Both of these are on the Maryland side of the Potomac. The Maryland side has some designated overlooks of the falls themselves, but I’ve been told they pale in comparison to the views from the Virginia side. Following three days of rain, we were bound to see a ton of water.
On June 20-21, the Potomac River gauge at Little Falls was at 5.6 feet, or about 30,000 cubic feet/sec., according to the USGS. Normal flow is about 3 feet and 5,000 cf/s, which means we saw the falls at about six times their normal discharge (see graph here). The NWS warns that at above five feet, the “river is at hazardous levels for recreational use.” Unfortunately, on the same day we visited, two swimmers (breaking the law) south of the falls drowned in the current.
For more photos of Great Falls, check out my Flickr set here or click here for a view from the Maryland side.
On our drive back from Manchester, we took a detour through Great Smoky Mountains National Park, near the Tennessee/North Carolina border. While not the same types of mountains and vistas I experienced over spring break in New Mexico, Arizona, Utah, and Colorado, a pleasant drive through a tranquil and natural setting helped ease the adjustment back into normal society following the four days of craziness that was Bonnaroo. For more photos from the Smokies, check out my Flickr set here.
Planet Roo at the 2009 Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival on June 11, 2009. Taken on a Nokia 5310 cell phone.
